The present invention relates to a medical apparatus for turning a patient over on a sickbed, and more particularly to a multipurpose body-turn-over apparatus which uses a motor-driven assembly to pull or lower ropes having a net connected to lower ends thereof, so that a patient lying on the net can be automatically turned over regularly. Other treatment means may also be selectively connected to the ropes to help the patient do rehabilitation exercises, back exercises, etc.
There are many aged, sick, and invalid people lying on bed for a prolonged time and need nurses to regularly turn them over to avoid bedsore and other mental problem resulting from confinement to bed. There are automatic machines developed to help patients turn over and do rehabilitation exercises on sickbeds. Most of these sickbeds with such automatic machines include two lateral halves that are alternately lifted and lowered by motors or hydraulic cylinders to help patients turn over. However, patients' backs always keep close contact with the sickbeds when they are turned over with the help of inclined bed surfaces. Therefore, such sickbeds have only limited effect in preventing bedsore. Besides, these sickbeds with automatic machines to help patients turn over have complicate structure and are expensive. Not all the patients can afford to buy such a sickbed for use at home. Moreover, such sickbeds are usually designed for use by one single patient. The automatic machines are fixedly mounted on individual sickbeds and can not be freely moved to cooperate with multiple sickbeds for use in an economical manner.
To effectively solve the above-mentioned problems, the inventor has tried to develop an improved multipurpose body-turn-over apparatus based on but superior to a multipurpose body-turn-over apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,748 granted to the same inventor.